Day 83 (28 August): Any junk you could want
In the morning and early afternoon, we toured through some of Guangzhou's more historic sites: the Chen Family Temple (which now serves as the Guangdong Arts Center), the Six Banyan Tree Buddhist Temple (featuring a 9 story pagoda), and the Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall.
In the afternoon, I had a chance to walk around the modern city as Guangzhou really is a modern, 'business' city representing a wide-range of manufacturing in the surrounding areas. The streets have more small shops than anywhere I've ever been and seem to be stacked up inside of malls as well and sell about any kind of junk you could imagine buying--particularly things made of plastic--but also kids toys, lanterns, food products, home design products, etc. I think if you see a product you like in one of the shops, you can order as many as you want wholesale.
Observations:
1) At the older tourist sites there were a number of Western couples pushing around strollers with little Chinese kids in them. Visually giving a sense of the 'one child' policy in China and the foreigners coming in and adopting babies.
2) Chinese view of Japan. This came up with our guide at the Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall as Sun Yat Sen had good relations with the Japanese. Of course being the aniversary of the end of the Japanese defeat in WWII the topic is in the media a lot recently about how they killed innumberable Chinese peasants in the 1930s and 1940s when they occupied NE China and have since refused to acknowledge the incidents. Apparently, according to our guide there is some movement towards boycotting Japanese products afoot, although actually doing so is tough given their wide-sporead use.
3) Smoking. There are a lot fewer people smoking in China and in Hong Kong than I remember from the last time I was in either place (about 3 years ago and about 1 year ago, respectively.) There also seem to be anti-smoking ads around which is new. This would be a big change if smoking becomes uncommon here and a big loss for tabacco companies, although I guess they'll still have India and Eastern Europe to buy ciggarettes.
4) Infrastructure expansion. The Guangzhou subway currently has only 2 lines. By the end of 2006 it is supposed to have 3 and by the end of 2010 it is supposed to have 10. That's an amazing expansion, but probably one that's necessary for the city of 10 Million to becoming a more livable, modern place which from looking around, it is well on its way to becoming and quickly.
5) New Buildings? There seem to be a number of very large buildings around where the construction stopped halfway though and they now sit empty. Despite this there are cranes everywhere and countless buildings with current constuction work happening on them. I don't know what to make of the unfinished buildings. Anyone with some insight, it'd be appreciated.
In the afternoon, I had a chance to walk around the modern city as Guangzhou really is a modern, 'business' city representing a wide-range of manufacturing in the surrounding areas. The streets have more small shops than anywhere I've ever been and seem to be stacked up inside of malls as well and sell about any kind of junk you could imagine buying--particularly things made of plastic--but also kids toys, lanterns, food products, home design products, etc. I think if you see a product you like in one of the shops, you can order as many as you want wholesale.
Observations:
1) At the older tourist sites there were a number of Western couples pushing around strollers with little Chinese kids in them. Visually giving a sense of the 'one child' policy in China and the foreigners coming in and adopting babies.
2) Chinese view of Japan. This came up with our guide at the Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall as Sun Yat Sen had good relations with the Japanese. Of course being the aniversary of the end of the Japanese defeat in WWII the topic is in the media a lot recently about how they killed innumberable Chinese peasants in the 1930s and 1940s when they occupied NE China and have since refused to acknowledge the incidents. Apparently, according to our guide there is some movement towards boycotting Japanese products afoot, although actually doing so is tough given their wide-sporead use.
3) Smoking. There are a lot fewer people smoking in China and in Hong Kong than I remember from the last time I was in either place (about 3 years ago and about 1 year ago, respectively.) There also seem to be anti-smoking ads around which is new. This would be a big change if smoking becomes uncommon here and a big loss for tabacco companies, although I guess they'll still have India and Eastern Europe to buy ciggarettes.
4) Infrastructure expansion. The Guangzhou subway currently has only 2 lines. By the end of 2006 it is supposed to have 3 and by the end of 2010 it is supposed to have 10. That's an amazing expansion, but probably one that's necessary for the city of 10 Million to becoming a more livable, modern place which from looking around, it is well on its way to becoming and quickly.
5) New Buildings? There seem to be a number of very large buildings around where the construction stopped halfway though and they now sit empty. Despite this there are cranes everywhere and countless buildings with current constuction work happening on them. I don't know what to make of the unfinished buildings. Anyone with some insight, it'd be appreciated.
posted by Traveling Brian at 5:15 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home